Chapter 3, Lesson 2

If you already know how HTML files are organized at the server site, you can skip this lesson.

Before we get down to the real nitty-gritty of building a link for a web page, we need to discuss file locations. This varies somewhat from provider to provider, so we'll discuss a general case. Typically, your ISP will set aside some disk space for your account to use for storing HTML files (i.e., your web files). They'll assign a unique URL (Internet address) to your web space. If you did not purchase a "domain name," your assigned URL will probably look something like mine, "www.io.com/~maddog/". Anyone entering your "home" URL without a filename, will get the default HTML file (often, "index.html"). If you have uploaded web pages into your web space directory, then those files may be retrieved by a requesting HTTP server, using the URL:

"http://your.ISP.com/~your_account/filename.htm."

Whatever web page you build (even though you build it locally on your own computer), it must be uploaded (transferred) to your web space on your ISP's computer, in order to be accessable via the Internet. [Contact your ISP for procedures on how to access and transfer files to your web space.]

Once a remote browser has loaded one of your web pages, it knows your current URL. Therefore, it considers any reference to a file name (without the full URL) to mean a file in your web space (using the current URL).

Let's say you're building two pages, your default web page (your "home page") and a second page with your resume. In your homepage, you want to embed a "link" to your resume. Both files will be written in HTML, and both will be uploaded to your web space at your ISP. The homepage (let's say it's named "index.html") will contain some HTML text, including an embedded link to your resume, "resume.htm." The embedded link has two parts: the description, and the reference. We'll call the description "my resume" and the reference can be either "http://your.ISP.com/your_account/resume.htm," or "resume.htm." If the resume file is loaded in the same directory as the homepage, it's simpler to just use the filename "resume.htm" as your reference.

Take the hypothetical case of a link to your resume ("resume.htm") from your homepage ("index.html"). You would embed (which simply means "insert" or "type in") the "link" (with its reference and description) in your "index.html" file. We presume that your "resume.htm" file has already been composed. You would then upload both files to your assigned web space (thus "publishing" them). Now, when somebody opens your default homepage ("index.html"), and they see your unusual link "my resume", they will be strangely drawn to "click" it, and ZOWEEee!, your resume appears!

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Overseer: Monty Northrup ... ... leave e-mail ...

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